Expo Construction Authority

While construction of the Expo Bike Path still years away, the LADOT is doing its best to complete its portion of the bikeway that will connect westsiders to the Expo Line.

Expo Phase II completes the long-anticipated rail connection between Downtown Los Angeles and Downtown Santa Monica. Construction on Phase II began in 2011. Currently, the Expo line ends in Culver City. When the new 6.6-mile extension opens next year, it will be possible to take the train from the beach to Downtown Los Angeles for the first time in half-a-century.

As cyclists eagerly await completion of the Expo Bikeway from Culver City to Santa Monica, some fixes are ongoing to the maligned-but-improving Phase I bike path.

Tomorrow, the Expo Construction Authority Board of Directors will hear a motion by Los Angeles City Councilmember Paul Koretz requiring "the CEO and staff to work collaboratively with the City of Los Angeles to ensure that the landscaping of the two projects (the Expo Greenway and the landscaping for the Expo Line) compliment each other..."

On Tuesday, Jonathan Weiss snapped this picture of the Expo Line tracks being placed in the Northvale Road trench. The trench runs along the southern end of Cheviot Hills and the track's arrival is considered a construction mile stone by rail fans.

When Stephen Villavaso, known to many Streetsblog readers as the volunteer traffic engineer who makes CicLAvia possible, asked me if I would like to ride along on a tour of Expo Phase II construction, I jumped at the chance. Villavaso is also one of the engineers working for Skanska-Rados Joint Venture - the design-build contractor of the Expo Line Phase II. Villavaso manages the design for the construction project which involves regularly driving up and down the future light rail and bike path talking to workers, monitoring construction, and just keeping abreast of everything that’s happening on site.

I wonder what it is about the Expo Line that makes conservative muckrakers lose their collective minds?

Neighbors for Smart Rail, the group of homeowners that has fought the Expo Line running through their community, isn't quite done yet. Despite Streetsblog's proclamation after the California Public Utilities Commission gave the Expo Line the green light that the appeals were over, NFSR is now appealing the Supreme Court ruling.